Outdoors

On Tuesday, Dec. 13, I had delivered parts to Oil Springs, Ky., but got home early enough to make a trip to a treestand. I climbed into the stand at 4:30 p.m.; the temperature was 44 degrees with a light southwesterly wind. I saw one deer come to the field about 150 yards away. It fed for a few minutes before disappearing back into the woods.

At dusk I had one deer right under me, but it never stepped out into the field I was watching, so there was no chance for a shot, as that deer backtracked into thick brush there were four other deer that moved off with it.

The girls — Lilly, age 5, and Hannah, age 10 — have been looking forward to the late youth hunt for a while. They had both practiced shooting the single-shot .223 rifle, and Hannah had been shooting her bow out of a treestand at 3-D deer targets because she wanted to bowhunt if the weather cooperated.

The free youth deer hunt will be open Saturday and Sunday and gives kids one last chance to take deer with a firearm.

During this youth hunt, resident and nonresident kids 15 years of age and younger — who are accompanied by an adult — can participate. Youth hunters may hunt with firearms or any other legal method (muzzleloader, crossbow or archery equipment), and they can hunt statewide without a hunting license or deer permit.

Adults accompanying youth hunters on this hunt cannot use a firearm to take a deer.

After a busy work week and then setting up a booth on Saturday morning at Bloomfield Middle School’s NASP archery tournament, where Bonnie and I spent the day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., I couldn’t wait to get in a treestand on Sunday morning.

I checked the weather Saturday evening, the forecast was for a temperature of 31 degrees, and it would be cloudy with a 3-6 mph SSE wind.

My son Eric was going to have to work Friday, Nov. 25, so at lunch Thanksgiving Day I told him that if my granddaughter Hannah wanted to hunt Friday that I would be glad to take her. When we mentioned this to Hannah, she was excited and anxious to get to go hunting with me Friday.

Plans were quickly made for Hannah to spend the night with Bonnie and me, but since Bonnie would be going shopping with her sisters Friday, Hannah and I would have the whole day to ourselves, something we had never done before.

A couple of weeks ago I got to watch a nice 10-point buck tearing up some brush and small trees. I had already filled my buck tag and watched him raking his antlers for about five minutes.

I used my rangefinder to get a little better look at his antlers, and never could tell how long his brow tines were. But I think he would have scored about 130. I ranged him at 30 yards. He gradually moved and stepped out into an opening, standing perfectly broadside. My rangefinder showed 31 yards. I watched as he disappeared into the brush.